Innovent, first Chinese biotech firm to market weight-loss drug, joins Hang Seng Index


Innovent Biologics will join the Hang Seng Index next month in the latest quarterly review as the compiler of the city’s stock benchmark presses ahead with its plan to increase the number of constituents to 100.

The biotech firm, based in eastern Jiangsu province, has become the only new constituent of the blue-chip indicator, one month after it signed an US$11.4 billion outsourcing deal with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceuticals to co-develop and commercialise three specific investigational cancer medicines from its pipeline.

The stock would be added after the market closed on December 5, increasing the tally of index members to 89, the Hang Seng Index said in a statement on Friday. There would be no deletions, it added.

As part of the rebalancing of the Hang Seng family of indices, Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology would be added to the Hang Seng Tech Index, while Innovent, together with aluminium producer China Hongqiao Group and restaurant chain operator Yum China Holdings, would join the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese mainland companies trading in Hong Kong, according to the statement.
Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology will be added to the Hang Seng Tech Index. Photo: Reuters
Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology will be added to the Hang Seng Tech Index. Photo: Reuters

Investors are expected to closely monitor the changes in the composition of the Hang Seng indices as Hong Kong stocks regain favour amid easing US-China tariff tensions and expectations of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.

The Hang Seng Index has risen nearly 30 per cent this year, ranking among the best-performing major stock gauges globally, amid China’s advances in artificial intelligence and its improving relations with Washington.

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